Dynamic Measures of Team Adaptation

ObjectiveDynamic measures of team adaptation based in team cognition theory and the measurement of real-time team cognition are developed. The present study examines the validity and context-specificity of this measurement framework for simulation-based team training.BackgroundTeams adapt by reorganizing their coordination behavior to overcome challenges in dynamic environments. Theoretically grounded objective metrics for measuring adaptive skill in teams are needed. We developed dynamic measures of team adaptation to help fill this gap.MethodCommunication data from critical care air transport team training were analyzed using moving window entropy and recurrence-based determinism metrics of communicative adaptation in response to training event perturbations involving stabilizing deteriorating patient status. The measures were validated across four simulation-based training scenarios using objective and subjective metrics of team performance.ResultsWe validated performance prediction in all scenarios, demonstrating generalizability. Critically, teams reorganized significantly more during perturbation segments than routine segments, validating the measures as indices of team adaptation. We also observed context-specificity, wherein the relationships between reorganization and successful performance depended on the training scenario.ConclusionThe communicative reorganization measures advanced in this paper present a valid method for assessing adaptive competencies in teams. These analytics generalize in terms of performance prediction across training scenarios, but they are also context-specific, wherein patterns of effective reorganization depend on the type of scenario.ApplicationWe discuss the practical deployment of the measurement framework in a Team Dynamics Measurement System for assessing team adaptation competencies in critical care air transport team training.